Key takeaways
- PACT is not an ordinance. It is an interdepartmental team created by Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Executive Order 2025-05, signed 23 June 2025. The order directs City departments and does not amend any code section.
- The visible result is review goals SDCI published, which the City has had as of 1 October 2025. For a house addition or alteration the goal is 30 days in City control and SDCI’s page showed 64 at the 75th percentile on 27 October 2026. For Middle Housing, which includes single family homes, the goal is 60 against 117.
- The binding clock is still the Seattle Residential Code: 28 days to tell you if your application is complete and 120 days to decide after that, with the clock paused while you answer corrections.
- The order also says permits should issue after two review rounds and that approvals should not bring new corrections, except for life safety. I found no code or SDCI guidance adopting either, so do not plan around them.
- My own figures are unchanged: design to permit submission typically takes 2 to 4 months, a Seattle remodel permit can be obtained in about 2 to 3 months, and a new house in Seattle takes 6 to 10 months.
Short answer: PACT is not an ordinance, and it did not change the Seattle code. It is a City team set up by an executive order from Mayor Bruce Harrell on 23 June 2025, and the visible result for a homeowner is a set of published review time goals from SDCI that the City has had in place since 1 October 2025. SDCI’s own page shows the City still well above those goals, so I plan a Seattle permit on the adopted rules and my own planning figures, not on the goals.
Who this is for. An owner planning a Seattle remodel of $750,000 or more, or a new house, who searched for the PACT ordinance. I design the work, produce the permit drawings and administer construction. Piper Cole does not build. Every City figure below was read on 27 October 2026 from SDCI, the Mayor’s office, SDCI’s code PDFs and the City’s own reports. Confirm anything you rely on with SDCI.
What PACT is, and why it is not an ordinance
The Mayor’s Permitting and Customer Trust team, PACT for short, comes from Executive Order 2025-05, signed by Mayor Harrell on 23 June 2025. The order says PACT launches in the second quarter of 2025 as an interdepartmental team led by the Mayor’s Office. It names eleven departments, among them SDCI, Seattle Public Utilities, Seattle City Light, Parks, the transportation department, the fire department and Seattle IT. SDCI’s page and a Seattle IT report spell the name “Permitting Accountability and Customer Trust”, so you will see both names for the same team.
An executive order is the mayor’s direction to City departments. An ordinance is passed by the City Council and changes the Seattle Municipal Code. The text of this order amends no section of the code. It lists future work, and one item is to codify review timelines, so they were not code when it was signed. SDCI’s performance page links the executive order and a press release, not an ordinance. The sources I read describe an order, a team and published goals.
The order cites a decline in residential permit applications from 2020 to 2024 and aims at housing production and small businesses. SDCI’s categories include single family homes, which is where a remodeling owner comes in. The 2026 budget carried money for it. Seattle IT’s April 2026 report says $750,000 was appropriated in the 2026 Information Technology Fund for the PACT Program.
What the order tells the City to do
Most of the order is a to do list for the City. The table sets each item that touches a homeowner next to what I could confirm today. Where the right column says not found, I looked and found nothing.
| Item in the order | What the order says | What I could confirm on 27 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Published review metrics | PACT is to adopt clear performance metrics for permitting timelines within 90 days of the order, published and regularly updated. | Confirmed. SDCI says that as of 1 October 2025 the City has goals for how quickly it should issue construction permits, and that the page will be updated regularly. The text of the page shows no date for when the figures were last updated. |
| If goals are missed | Outcomes “may include adjusted fee structures, automatic processing of complete applications after defined timeframes, or targeted resourcing support”. | Not found. The order also says the City will explore penalties such as reduced or refunded permit fees. The refund section of SDCI’s 2026 Fee Subtitle (22.900B.050) covers withdrawn or cancelled applications, and I found no refund or automatic issuance tied to a missed goal. |
| Two review rounds | Measures that forward permits to issuance after two review rounds, at the applicant’s request, if the project meets basic life safety and zoning requirements. | Not found. SDCI’s pages still describe review as repeating until all issues are resolved. I saw no adoption of a two round rule. |
| No new corrections after approval | Once a reviewer or inspector approves something, a new correction cannot be required unless it pertains to life safety. | Not found in the SDCI pages and code I read. Treat it as a stated direction that you cannot cite as a rule. |
| AI pre screening | An AI permitting pilot began in April 2025 with a goal of cutting permitting time by 50 percent. | Seattle IT’s April 2026 report lists two AI permitting pilots, CivCheck and Archistar. For CivCheck it gives about a 50 percent cut in average intake review days and a 35 percent cut in correction cycles per review, and says it is “still currently being evaluated”. |
The order sets life safety matters, which it lists as including structural integrity and fire safety, apart from the rest, and its limit on new corrections after approval carves life safety out. Structural work is common in a whole house remodel, so that carve out matters. The page on when a remodel needs a structural engineer covers that side.
Free feasibility check
Planning a custom home or a remodel of $750,000 or more?
Send me the address and a few lines about what you want. The first feasibility check is free and usually takes about a day.
The review goals SDCI published for homes
SDCI publishes goals and current figures by project category. Three categories involve homes. The goal column is the City’s target and the current column is the 75th percentile as SDCI shows it.
| SDCI category | Goal, days in City control | Current, 75th percentile | What SDCI says it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single Family Addition/Alteration | 30 | 64 | Expanding or renovating an existing house beyond what a subject to field inspection permit covers. |
| Middle Housing | 60 | 117 | Includes single family homes, houses with ADUs, duplexes, townhouses and other small form housing. |
| Pre-Approved DADU Plans | 30 | 60 | A detached ADU built from pre approved plans from ADUniverse. |
Read the measure before you read the numbers. These are calendar days in City control, which SDCI defines as only the days when the City is reviewing or acting. Time when the application sits with you, such as waiting on a resubmission or a fee, is excluded. The goal is for 75 percent of reviews, and SDCI explains that three out of four permits take less time than the 75th percentile and one in four take longer. It also says the total number of calendar days an applicant experiences is roughly twice the City control figure.
By my arithmetic, 64 days against a goal of 30 is about 2.1 times the goal, and 117 against 60 is about 1.95 times. SDCI calls these “aggressive goals” and writes that meeting them “won’t happen overnight”. A new house sits in the Middle Housing row, which SDCI says includes single family homes. Its 117 days is a little under 4 months of City time alone, before any of your own response time, and my own figure for a new house in Seattle is 6 to 10 months.
For other cities’ numbers and a full calendar from first call to permit, see how long a whole house remodel takes.
What the adopted code says, which PACT did not change
The clock that is law sits in the Seattle Residential Code, Chapter 1, which is SDCI’s amendment of the national code. I read the 2021 edition on SDCI’s site, the edition SDCI has adopted; SDCI says its 2024 codes will be completed no sooner than May 2027. Section R105.7.1 gives the building official 28 days after you file to tell you in writing whether the application is complete, and 14 days after you send missing information to say whether it is now complete. If the official misses those deadlines, the application is deemed complete.
Section R105.7.2 then gives the building official 120 days after the completeness notice to approve, condition or deny. The code excludes the periods when you have been asked to correct plans or provide information, and any extension you and the official agree. If you substantially revise the application, the period starts again from the date the revised application is complete. That is a different clock from the PACT goal, which starts when SDCI accepts the application and counts City days only. Do not compare the two numbers as if they were one.
Section R105.10 adds a limit on your side: an application may be cancelled if no permit has issued 12 months after the application date, or 60 days after written notice that the permit is ready, whichever is earlier, after at least 30 days written warning.
Corrections follow a set routine. SDCI’s page on responding to review comments says all reviews must be complete before you can respond, that plans are not accepted for review if sheets or correction responses are missing, and that the target review time for corrected plans is two weeks. The 2026 Fee Subtitle, in section 22.900D.010.J, allows a Correction Fee of two times the SDCI base fee for each additional correction cycle caused by an insufficient response, after written notice. The base fee is $292 (22.900B.010.A), so that is 2 times $292, or $584 per extra cycle. The weeks cost more than the fee.
One caution from SDCI itself. Its Tip 101, revised 30 June 2026, opens with a notice that tips may not reflect the most current rules because of interim regulations tied to state legislation effective July 2025 and pending Design Review and SEPA changes. Ask SDCI through its Send Us a Question page before you rely on one.
What this means for a remodel of $750,000 or more
My planning figures for Seattle are my own and are not SDCI statistics. Design to permit submission typically takes 2 to 4 months, a Seattle remodel permit can be obtained in about 2 to 3 months, and a new house in Seattle takes 6 to 10 months. I have no before and after number for PACT and I will not invent one.
What you can influence is the quality of what goes in. The completeness clock in R105.7.1 starts when you file, the goal clock starts when SDCI accepts the application, and every correction cycle takes time on both sides. A coordinated set that answers the structural, stormwater, energy and tree questions before filing is what I aim for. The pages on the Seattle stormwater code, the energy code for remodels and when a remodel counts as a new house list the reviews that most often change a Seattle scope.
On cost, my fee for design and permit is a fixed fee set by project budget and location, about $10,000 to $200,000 depending on scope. The City’s charges are separate, and the Seattle permit fee page works them through at $750,000. The order asks the City to review when in the process fees are levied. I did not confirm any change from that, so use the fee page for current charges.
You can also look at real permits instead of goals. SDCI’s Construction Permit Timeline tool holds construction permit data back to 2018 and shows on one timeline when an application moved from City control to the applicant and back, and which reviews finished when. The page on a whole house remodel in Seattle shows how I plan the steps.
A new mayor, and what I could not confirm
Mayor Katie B. Wilson signed Executive Order 2026-04 on 19 August 2026. It does not name PACT or Executive Order 2025-05. Under it, the Innovation and Performance Team and the Mayor’s Office will launch a Residential Permitting Interdepartmental Team “to make permit timelines shorter and more predictable” across City Light, SDCI, the transportation department, the fire department and Seattle Public Utilities. It also has City Light, the transportation department, the fire department and Seattle Public Utilities each designate a primary point of contact for interdepartmental permitting coordination, in an item that centers on community-led affordable housing applicants, and it lists “SDCI performance targets that provide predictability for construction permit applicants” among work already under way. It also sets up a Housing Production Task Force, with a status update due 15 February 2027.
So the direction continues, and the goals page was still live when I read it.
What I could not confirm, and left out of my planning:
- That SDCI adopted a rule to issue permits after two review rounds, or any rule against new corrections after approval.
- That a fee is reduced or refunded when the City misses a goal.
- A date for when SDCI’s goal table was last updated, and a median figure for single family additions, which the page defines but does not list in the table.
- The numbers in SDCI’s interactive PACT and Residential Permitting Trends dashboards, which I could not read as text.
Check the SDCI performance page before you rely on any figure here.
What to ask before you hire for a Seattle permit
- Which SDCI category will my scope fall in, and what does SDCI show for it today?
- How many months do you plan from signed agreement to permit submission, and what does the fixed fee cover up to the permit?
- Which reviews will my scope trigger: structural, stormwater, energy, trees, critical areas?
- Who prepares and sends the response to every correction item, and in how many days?
- Will you show me comparable permits in SDCI’s Construction Permit Timeline tool?
- Who administers construction after the permit, and do you build? I administer construction and do not build.
For context on who you are asking: I have been an architect since 1996, I am an AIA member since 1992 and an NCARB member since 1996, and the Carr residence was featured in Above The Lake and Lux magazines.
Next step
Talk through your Seattle permit schedule
The first feasibility check is free and very quick, about a day. If you want more depth before design, the in depth analysis is $1,500 and takes 2 to 3 weeks. Call or message me.
Questions
Is PACT an ordinance in Seattle?
No. PACT is an interdepartmental team created by Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Executive Order 2025-05, signed 23 June 2025. An executive order directs City departments and this one amends no section of the Seattle Municipal Code. SDCI’s performance page links the order and a press release, not an ordinance.
What does PACT stand for in Seattle?
The executive order calls it the Mayor’s Permitting and Customer Trust Team. SDCI’s page and a Seattle IT report call it Permitting Accountability and Customer Trust. Both refer to the same team, which is aimed at housing and small business permitting.
Does PACT guarantee a Seattle remodel permit in 30 days?
No. Thirty days is SDCI’s goal in City control for single family additions and alterations, aimed at 75 percent of reviews. SDCI’s page showed 64 days for that category on 27 October 2026 and says the total an applicant experiences is roughly twice the City figure, because your own response time is not counted.
What are the Seattle review goals for a house addition or a new house?
SDCI lists a goal of 30 days in City control for single family addition or alteration, with 64 days current at the 75th percentile, and 60 days for Middle Housing, which includes single family homes, with 117 days current. SDCI says the City has had these goals as of 1 October 2025. The text of its page shows no date for when the current figures were last updated.
Does PACT limit Seattle permit review to two rounds?
The order tells the City to develop measures that forward permits to issuance after two review rounds at the applicant’s request, if basic life safety and zoning requirements are met. I found no code section or SDCI guidance adopting that, and SDCI still describes review as repeating until every issue is resolved. Do not plan around it.
What is the legal deadline for Seattle to decide a residential permit?
Under Section R105.7.2 of the 2021 Seattle Residential Code, the building official must approve, condition or deny within 120 days after notifying you that the application is complete. Time when you are asked to correct plans or supply information is excluded, and R105.7.1 gives 28 days to decide whether the application is complete.
Did Mayor Wilson end PACT?
I found no order ending it. Her Executive Order 2026-04, signed 19 August 2026, does not name PACT, but it creates a Residential Permitting Interdepartmental Team to make permit timelines shorter and more predictable, and it lists SDCI performance targets among aligned work. Seattle IT’s April 2026 report says $750,000 was appropriated for PACT in 2026.
How long does a Seattle remodel permit take with Piper Cole?
My planning figures are that design to permit submission typically takes 2 to 4 months and a Seattle remodel permit can be obtained in about 2 to 3 months. A new house in Seattle takes 6 to 10 months. These are my own figures, not SDCI statistics, and they depend on the scope and the lot.
Where can I see how long a real Seattle permit took?
SDCI’s Construction Permit Timeline tool shows construction permits back to 2018. For a permit number it shows when the application sat with the City, when it sat with the applicant, and which reviews finished when. It is a better guide to your own scope than a citywide goal.
Authoritative sources
Regulatory requirements referenced in this guide are set by the official agencies below. Rules change, always confirm current requirements with the source:
